A Day of Hunting
by Shadow24
Summary: What could have happened that day...


The air was filled with screams. Screams of terror, fear, and… death. Far below, on the ground, an intense battle waged. Hundreds of Jedi warriors spun and danced, maneuvering themselves with the power of the Force. Opposing them were thousands of troops – mechanical war droids, fearsome destroyer droids, and even members of the odd race of mechanical soldiers who had pledged their allegiance to the Separatist Faction. All of them were interlocked in battle, but one fighter in particular stood out – a tall, muscular youth, who fought more aggressively than the other Jedi. His green lightsaber seemed to be only a blur as he swept across the battlefield, leaving a trail of mechanical destruction behind him. He was the prime element of the fight, the single most destructive of any of them.  
  
All this was processed through the mind of the bounty hunter Jango Fett in mere moments. It was with an air of casual confidence that he watched the battle – he was the galaxy's best bounty hunter, and every sentient being knew he. No harm would come to him except from the truly ignorant… or foolish. At the beginning of the battle, he had allowed himself to drop into somewhat of a frenzy, firing off shots from his laser pistols at any and all of the Jedi. Now, however, he settled into his confident nature. Beneath the T-visor helmet he had found within the Mandalorian ruins, his eyes scanned the battlefield for Jedi whose backs were turned to him, engaged in a life-or-death struggle with others. Those were the ones he shot, smiling to himself as he imagined the look of surprise and fear on each one's face as their corpse fell to the hot, swirling sands. Suddenly, a beeping in Fett's helmet alerted him of others' presence. Two Jedi had leapt up behind him, creeping along to attempt and catch him by surprise. Fools, Fett thought silently. There's no sneaking up on the greatest hunter ever born of this galaxy… He crouched down, giving the two Jedi the impression that something was wrong with one of his pistols. He listened to them creep closer and closer, until finally… There. A single push of a button on his wrist, and the rocket protruding from the top of his backpack fired, catching the two would-be assassins completely by surprise. There wasn't even time for them to scream before the explosion consumed them. In order to avoid the explosion, Fett jumped, tucking himself into a roll as he fell down to the ground. He landed amidst a conflict between two droids and a Jedi – only a moment later, the Jedi fell to the ground, a smoking hole coming from his robes, just over his heart. Inside his helmet, Fett smiled in delight. This was a good day for hunting, indeed…  
  
It was the explosion that drew Anakin's attention to the building, and that distraction almost cost him his life, as only his instinctive reaction to the Force warned him of a shot from a blaster rifle coming at him. A quick pivot, and he was in perfect position, reflecting the bolt back into the droid that had fired it, watching it explode into pieces. You'll have to do better than that, he thought to himself, before looking back over to the explosion… just in time to see Arden, his friend from the Academy, crumple and fall to the ground. Standing in front of his body were two droids and a figure clad in silver and blue armor. A new kind of droid? Anakin wondered to himself. It doesn't matter… it killed Arden, so it has to pay. Long strides, augmented by the power of the Force, carried him over to the figures, and he jumped into the air as he approached them, turning and landing in a crouch before slashing sideways. The two droids split and fell, but the armor-clad figure's reflexes were apparently much faster, and he jumped back, avoiding the deadly slash. Anakin couldn't help but smile. Finally, a real challenge. To his surprise, the figure did not press an attack at first, instead tilting its head slightly. A voice filtered out through the helmet, the volume amplified by hidden speakers. "My name is Jango Fett. I've been watching you, Jedi. You're good. But you can't win. Are you prepared to die?" Anakin didn't bother to give an answer, instead running in at Fett, slashing diagonally at him. Fett ducked and turned to the side, raising his pistols and firing off a barrage of shots. Thinking quickly, Anakin jumped into the air, flipping and turning towards the shots, letting the Force guide his hand to reflect each back at Fett. He landed in a crouch, rising quickly and running at Fett again, who had leapt to the side to avoid the reflected shots. This time Fett charged as well, meeting him halfway and surprising him with a hard tackle that sent him sprawling to the ground. However, Anakin retained enough of his senses to hold onto Fett as he fell, yelling and throwing him over his head, onto the ground. Anakin rolled backwards and crouched over Fett, holding his blazing lightsaber just below the hunter's neck, eyes narrowed in the feelings of both battle and triumph. With a grin, he swung downwards… and then a scream pierced the battlefield, causing him to freeze and look around wildly for the source. He found it atop a stone ledge – a group of four destroyer droids had pinned Padme down, and the rock she was hiding behind was disintegrating rapidly under the barrage of fire. "PADME!" Anakin yelled, jumping up and running from the bounty hunter, with fear gripping his heart and soul. I lost my mother already, not her too, not when we're finally so close to being together…! He reached the scene just as the rock all but collapsed and swung into a frenzy, yelling in anger and fear. His first slice cut two of the droids in half, and the upper half of one of them flew into a third, breaking through the shield and exploding. The fourth droid turned its attention to Anakin, both repeating blasters spitting out streams of scarlet death at him, and it was all Anakin could do to dodge and reflect bolts away. He was tiring quickly though, and as his actions began to falter, more and more of the bolts grazed him. At that moment, he tripped over some of the debris littering the ground and he looked up into the barrels of the blasters, towards his death… until from behind the droid, a stream of blaster fire came, causing it to explode into shards. The smoke cleared quickly, revealing Jango Fett standing within the wreckage, the pistols slowly lowering. "Fett… why?" Anakin managed to stammer quietly, and though the helmet prevented him from seeing any of the hunter's emotions, Anakin had the feeling that Fett was smirking. "You had the chance to kill me back there, and you didn't… so now, we're even. Jango Fett repays his debts, no matter who they're to… and I respect your abilities as a fighter." Anakin smiled and then fell over as a shaking Padme rushed into his arms, kissing his chin quickly. "You could have died, don't do that ever again, Annie!" Anakin nodded and they stood slowly. He gave a brief nod of respect to the bounty hunter before turning, igniting his saber and moving back towards battle…  
  
Until something wrapped around his throat and tightened. The sudden force pulled him off his feet and he landed on his back, the force of the impact causing him to drop his saber to the ground. Padme turned and stepped back, her mouth opening slightly, even as Anakin reached up to feel what had stopped him. It was a wire, unbelievably strong and quite taut, pulling him back towards the bounty hunter. It wasn't until he was right next to Fett that he managed to choke words out through the pressure. "Thought… you respected… me…!" Again, Anakin heard, rather than saw the smirk on Jango's face. "I do. But you still have to die." The icy tone of the hunter's reply caused an icy shiver of fear to move down his body, and he lifted both hands to try and pull the wire away from his throat. From behind him, he heard a roar, and then he was yanked upwards as Fett flew into the sky with his jetpack, dragging Anakin along behind him. It took less than a minute for the sounds of the battle to grow fuzzy, and as Anakin slipped into the silent darkness of death, the last thing he heard was what sounded like Padme, futilely screaming his name.  
  
Jango released the wire after a good five minutes had passed, watching the Jedi's lifeless body fall to the ground, sending up a cloud of dust and sand when it hit. Suddenly, a blaster bolt caught him from behind, hitting the back of his helmet and splitting it apart. He dipped down toward the ground momentarily before regaining control, turning around and observing who had shot at him. It was the girl, and she had a look of pure hatred in her eyes as she aimed and fired at him again and again. With the jetpack, it was quite easy to dodge all of her shots, and he let her amuse herself for a moment before swooping in and ramming into her with his shoulder, sending her down to the ground. He landed on his feet, drawing his pistol and aiming at her head, even as she looked up into his face. An involuntarily shiver of shock passed down his body – she was beautiful, he had never noticed that before, and her mouth dropping over slightly showed her same realization. Slowly, Fett lowered the pistol, offering the girl a hand instead, which she took after a moment's hesitation. No words were exchanged; none were needed as they simply leaned in close, sharing a long, deep kiss amongst the chaos of the battlefield. Leaving his helmet lying on the ground, Fett walked with his new find back towards the underground caverns, where Boba would be waiting for him. A powerful Jedi killed, and a lovely bonus. A good day of hunting, indeed…  
  
End 


End file.
